


A Lost Bit of Sordid History

by jujubiest



Series: The Lucas Compendium [15]
Category: Forever (TV)
Genre: Edinburgh, Fluff, M/M, Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-13
Updated: 2016-04-13
Packaged: 2018-06-02 02:59:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6547906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jujubiest/pseuds/jujubiest
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lucas is touring a castle in Scotland with Adam, whose habit of quietly correcting or scoffing at everything the tour guide says is making it difficult for Lucas to pay attention.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Lost Bit of Sordid History

**Author's Note:**

  * For [CelticArche](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CelticArche/gifts).



> This takes place sometime after "The Lucas Curative" and before "The Lucas Epilogue." That's a span of several decades, so literally anywhere in there could work, but probably early on, as I think Adam and Lucas would have done a lot of traveling before settling down together somewhere. Un-beta'd, so forgive any mistakes.

Lucas bounced absentmindedly on the balls of his feet, barely paying attention to the tour guide’s words as he took in his lavish surroundings.

He’d always wanted to visit Europe, especially the old castles in Scotland. It was hard to believe he was standing here now, in the very rooms where—according to the guide, who Lucas tuned back in—Mary Queen of Scots had given birth to her son James when she stayed in the castle.

“In 1830, the remains of an infant were found hidden in a hollow behind the walls,” the guide droned, sounding far too bored for the subject matter. “It was wrapped in a silk shroud embroidered with a J. Could this be the infant son of Queen Mary? If so, who then ascended to the Scottish throne bearing his name?”

At his shoulder, Adam snorted. “Who indeed?” He murmured.

Lucas turned to him and raised an eyebrow.

“Problem?”

“Oh, not at all,” Adam said, the picture of innocence. Lucas rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to the tour guide, following the crowd as they moved through the lavishly decorated rooms.

A hand at his elbow slowed his steps, and he soon found himself near the back of the group. Adam leaned in close and began to whisper in Lucas’s ear.

“Mary Queen of Scots never set foot in this place again after she went back to France.”

“Oh, really,” Lucas said, feigning being unimpressed. He was intrigued, but unwilling to show it just yet.

“Truly. And whether she had a son or not, I don’t know, but the man who ascended to the thrones of Scotland, England, and Ireland under the name James VI was no Stuart.”

“Go on,” Lucas urged out of the side of his mouth, moving with the tour group but hanging back just enough for Adam to remain out of earshot of the rest of the guests. Adam compiled, whispering a flood of centuries-old royal scandal into Lucas’s ear with apparent relish.

“You see, few are now aware that King Henry had a bastard son with his favorite mistress, Diane de Poitiers. He was raised in the castle alongside his half-siblings, much to Catherine de Medici’s humiliation and rage. Oh, the stories I could tell you about that woman.”

“I’m listening,” Lucas urged. “But Mary first.”

Adam grinned and slid into Lucas’s personal space even more, wrapping an arm around his middle and pulling him in, nuzzling the sensitive skin behind his ear. He breathed the rest of the story against that spot, Lucas shivering a little at the cool air against his skin, mesmerized by the low crooning of Adam’s voice.

“Mary Stuart and Francis, the Dauphin of France, knew each other from childhood and were very close. Too close, really, to be married. Their affection for each other was more like the love of siblings. Still, Mary was content enough to go through with the marriage until she met Francis’s bastard brother.”

“Oh no,” Lucas said.

“Oh yes. It was love at first sight with those two. Of course, Mary couldn’t forsake her engagement to a future king for a bastard, not without getting herself and her lover beheaded in the process. So they decided to run away together. They disappeared on horseback in the dead of night and were never seen again.”

“Then…how—”

“Catherine was giddy; she hated Mary and was fond of declaring that she would be the end of her son if they were allowed to wed. Henry was furious…he wanted the English throne, and his best chance of getting it had ridden off into the night with his favored son. He probably would have tried to have the bastard legitimized, if they had given him the option.”

“So what happened?” The tour group had moved on, leaving them alone in the room, but he was too enthralled to worry about that for the moment.

“One of Mary’s ladies-in-waiting was in love with Francis and suffering in silence. Henry saw this and took advantage of it. They all looked very much alike, actually…all pretty, dark-haired Scottish girls of similar age and all named Mary. He declared that the lady-in-waiting had run off with his bastard, and had her pose as Mary. She was Mary Stuart for the rest of her life, much to her sorrow I’m sure.”

“That would certainly explain how her entire life fell apart when she was suddenly unable to handle the responsibility,” Lucas murmured. He was vaguely familiar with the story of Mary Queen of Scots. “But how on earth does all that happen and never make it into the history books?”

“A lower Scottish noblewoman elevated to queenship? The line of succession utterly disrupted and usurped? The Queen of Scots absconded away by the French king’s bastard? France would have been humiliated beyond repair. Catherine de Medici took great pains—and pleasure, knowing her—to cover it all up once her husband was dead. The false Mary had no children by her son, after all. She erased her husband’s indiscretions from history along with the fate of the real Mary Stuart, and no doubt relished the upstart’s utter failure and eventual demise as a leader.”

“She sounds delightful,” Lucas mumbled sarcastically. “But wait…how did _nobody_ notice they’d replaced the real Mary with an imposter? Wouldn’t her family and subjects have known?”

“Not at all,” Adam said, as though it should be obvious. “No photographs. No newspapers or television. Most people only had the vaguest idea what Mary Stuart really looked like, and those who knew her in France were part of French Court and had a stake in selling the lie. On top of that, she spent most of her childhood bounced between French court and a convent. By the time she returned to Scotland, she had been away nearly all her life. None of them would have known her if they had seen the real Mary, without being told. Those who might have, such as her mother, were already long dead. So when a dark-haired girl of the right age was presented as their Queen in this very castle, no one was any the wiser.”

“Huh,” Lucas said, nonplussed. It was hard to wrap his head around: someone so important as a queen, one of the few women to have her name written down in history, no less, and most people didn’t even know her on sight. “So…that just leaves the question: who is the baby in the wall?”

“Ah, that’s a story for another time, dear Lucas.”

“Tease,” Lucas admonished lightly. “But also, wow. Remind me to always pick places you’ve lived for vacations. Your version of history is so much more interesting than the textbook version.”

Adam smiled against his neck and pressed a quick kiss there.

“Yes,” he said. “I know. Now, we should probably rejoin the tour group before someone comes looking and claps us in irons.”

“Yes, well, we wouldn’t want that,” Lucas quipped, and followed Adam out of the room, still looking all around him in wonder at a place that still held so many secrets, even hundreds of years later, from all but a precious few.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I took Adam's "what really happened" partially from the plot of Reign because I'm trash.


End file.
